- Join the France 24 community here
- Log in
Latest update: 11/06/2009
- Economic crisis - France - unemployment
Huge French job losses in first quarter
The continuing economic crisis ensured a further 187,800 French job losses in the first quarter of this year, a figure twice as high as for the whole of 2008, according to French statistics institute INSEE. Unemployment now stands at 8.7 percent.
AFP - The economic downturn destroyed 187,800 French jobs in the first quarter this year, with temporary workers hardest hit, according to figures from the official statistics agency.
With one percent of all jobs scrapped across the entire private sector -- excluding agriculture -- the tally of job destructions was twice as high as for the whole of 2008, INSEE found.
Temporary workers, already hard-hit by the downturn throughout 2008, are continuing to feel the full impact of recession, accounting for 80,800 of the jobs destroyed between January and March.
France's unemployment rate jumped in the first quarter by 1.1 percentage points, the biggest increase since 1975, to 8.7 percent of the workforce, and the government warns it will continue to rise for several quarters.
Economy Minister Christine Lagarde warned Monday that the French economy was likely to contract by 3.0 percent this year.
Related Content
‘Darth Vader’ demands free land from Ukrainian government
Browse all editions
FRANCE 24 PARTNERS
Comments (2)
"Greendragon's warning about American dominance"
Greendragon, I find your argument rather petty, and indeed of little relation to this article. The article I read was of news of French job losses, something that has occurred on and off for years. As for American dominance, I think you need to catch up with your current events. We fought in two world wars reluctantly, and there is little appetite here for another Iraq. Singapore as I recall became a wealthy nation in large part because we are so open to your products. The US is a world power. But you should beware the powers you don't know (China?), not the ones you do. Europe is strong, but won't be there when you need her. Russia is unreliable at best. Who knows what China will grow into. Be careful of who you put down, especially in your part of the world. Oh, and Detroit, the city of my birth, is a proper noun that should be capitalized. Like “singapore,” perhaps?
French Industry.
France has got to be cautious as to the American attempt at complete world dominance. The British Automotive industry was demolished by use of Celtic Worker's Union and dissection of the Canadian, Australian markets. The Canadian was lured by cooperation by detroit. The French, Italiand and Korean are now threatened by SCALE and COST, the same method which demolished competitive automotive makers in Scandanavia, Russia, Spain. The French should cooperate with large national markets like Mexico, Brazil, ASEAN FTA zone, if possible India to this challenge.
Green DRagon